The announcement of a brand-new Western TV show from Netflix is owed largely in part to the overwhelming success of Paramount’s Yellowstone.
- The success of Yellowstone has led to the rise of spin-offs and prequels as the neo-Western genre continues to thrive.
- Netflix’s new Western TV show, Ransom Canyon, aims to emulate the success of Yellowstone with a similar premise.
- Yellowstone’s impact goes beyond TV, with other shows like Lawmen: Bass Reeves and films like Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga being influenced by its success in revitalizing the Western genre.
The success of Paramount’s Yellowstone has a lot to answer for, including the announcement of a new Western TV series from Netflix. Yellowstone comes from the mind of Taylor Sheridan and stars Kevin Costner as a ranch owner in the titular Yellowstone National Park. The immense success of the show after it began airing in 2018 has led to multiple Yellowstone spin-offs and prequels as the neo-Western genre continues its resurgence of late.
The various spin-offs to the original show have formulated a complex Yellowstone timeline that stems back to the late 1800s, the so-called “Golden Age” of the American cowboy. While some of the Yellowstone-adjacent shows are higher-ranked than others, the success of the franchise is nevertheless clear to see. Furthermore, this success is not solely limited to the Yellowstone franchise, something that has been made clear by the streaming giant Netflix and its recent announcement from the world of neo-Westerns.
Netflix’s New Western TV Show Is A Direct Response To Yellowstone’s Success
Netflix’s Ransom Canyon will try and emulate the success of Yellowstone’s Western story.
As per a report by TVLine, Netflix has ordered a 10-episode season named Ransom Canyon. The series will star Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly and will chart the interconnected lives of various families who own ranches in the Texas Hill Country. While Netflix may not say as much, Ransom Canyon‘s announcement is a direct response to the insane success of Yellowstone. The latter is very similar in premise to that which has been revealed about Ransom Canyon in that Kevin Costern’s character is the patriarch of a family who owns a ranch, with the series exploring the family drama and issues that come with it.
As such, Netflix’s new Western TV show will be looking to capitalize on the success of Yellowstone. In terms of critical reception, Yellowstone holds an 84% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, proving how well-loved it is in the TV industry. If this was not enough of a metric of Yellowstone‘s success, a report by Variety into the most-watched TV shows in May 2023 supports this. Only beaten by the NFL’s Sunday Night Football, Yellowstone was revealed as the second-most-watched TV series of 2022-2023, beating out long-running competitors like NCIS, FBI, Young Sheldon, and more. This success is evidently something Netflix is attempting to tap into with the announcement of Ransom Canyon.
Yellowstone Has Already Had A Massive Impact On Modern TV
Yellowstone’s spin-offs are emblematic of its success, as are the other TV shows inspired by it.
Yellowstone‘s success is evident solely based on the franchise itself. In 2021, the first spin-off of Yellowstone was released: 1883. The 10-episode season served as an origin story for the Yellowstone Ranch, tying into the prior generations of the Dutton family. In 2022, the second spin-off of Yellowstone
Matthew McConaughey is in talks to star in 2024, again summing up the success of the Yellowstone franchise through the pull it has to acquire accomplished actors.
Aside from the seemingly endless spin-offs of Yellowstone and the announcement of a similar story from Netflix, the success of the Paramount show can also be proven to have impacted other areas of modern TV concerning the Western genre. Another recent Paramount+ Western has been released in November 2023, Lawmen: Bass Reeves. This show’s existence can be directly attributed to Yellowstone‘s success, as the former is produced by the latter’s creator, Taylor Sheridan. If Ransom Canyon also proves to be successful, other streaming services and studios outside of Paramount may take up Netflix’s tactic of attempting to emulate Yellowstone‘s success as the resurgence of the Western on modern TV continues.
Yellowstone’s Success Made Kevin Costner’s Horizon Movie Possible
Yellowstone’s success is bleeding over into the film industry, not just other TV projects.
Costner’s starring role in Yellowstone and the Paramount show’s success was undoubtedly influential in the decision of the studios to greenlight Horizon: An American Saga now rather than in the last two decades. The two films will now be released on June 28, 2024, and August 16, 2024, respectively…
One final way in which Yellowstone has affected the wider state of Western filmmaking relates to the feature film industry, not solely TV. In January 2022, it was confirmed that Yellowstone star Kevin Costner will direct a two-film Western story titled Horizon: An American Saga. The story is a passion project of Costner’s, with the actor originally pitching the film on two separate occasions in 1988 and 2003. That said, nothing ever came of the pitches until Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema joined the project in April 2022.
It is no coincidence that this pitch became a reality in 2022 as Yellowstone has just come off of its fourth – and at the time most successful – season. Costner’s starring role in Yellowstone and the Paramount show’s success was undoubtedly influential in the decision of the studios to greenlight Horizon: An American Saga now rather than in the last two decades. The two films will now be released on June 28, 2024, and August 16, 2024, respectively, proving the overwhelming impact that Yellowstone has had on the modern filmmaking industry concerning revitalizing the Western genre.